How To Multiply Your Community By A Factor Of X

The Web is entering a new period of transition. Mozilla can’t compete with large vendors such as Google and Apple on their terms, so as always are fighting the good fight their own way. This means moving beyond Firefox into wider Web initiiatives (identity, privacy, Apps) and to some extent outside their comfort zone. Mozilla needs more people with fresh ideas. Mozilla Reps aims to get those people.

The Mozilla Reps program, launched in mid-2011, has the lofty aim of bringing on board thousands of volunteers to officially represent the project and recruit others into the project. The Mozilla project aims to push more and more responsibility out to community members and this talk will discuss the successes and challenges we have had, and our plans for continued momentum.

While it has been a success so far, it has not been without challenges. We want other communities to try and take what we have learned and done and apply it, and we want to continue the discussion to learn from others.

Brian King

Briks Software

A long-time Mozillian, Brian has many roles. These include Add-ons Reviewer, Evangelism, ReMo Council member, and WebFWD Scout.

Benjamin Kerensa

Mozilla

Benjamin Kerensa is an internationally recognized open source evangelist, community manager, author and speaker with experience in systems administration, project management and open source development that spans a decade.

Comments

Mark Terranova

07/21/2012 11:56am PDT

Great talk. I liked seeing how Mozilla is working on a larger plan, and also keeping some flexibility as they grow and new opportunities present themselves. I learned quite a bit, and was able to share some ideas with the speakers after it was over.

Benjamin Kerensa

07/20/2012 5:50pm PDT

Shane: Reps do not automatically get committ access and have to go through the Standard Process which Mozilla has outlined here
www.mozilla.org/hacking/com...

Unless they are developers or do some sort of hacking its unlikely they would be granted commit access versus just accepting patches that are sponsored.

Benjamin Kerensa

07/20/2012 5:48pm PDT

Hi Shane:

We have a through evaluation process and mentoring process. ReMo only accepts qualified candidates who have a strong background in the open source community and are vouched as a Mozillian. (So Normal FOSS Peer Review Process)

We do not generally take new-comers and in fact 50% of applicants are declined because we prefer quality over quantity.

Shane Curcuru

07/20/2012 5:05pm PDT

One question: how do you evaluate these reps, especially in terms of their ability to “represent” Mozilla? While the Mozilla brand is firmly set in the tech world, it still must be something of an issue in the non-tech world, and you’ll now have (a few) relative newcomers claiming to be “official” reps. How do you manage brand consistency?

Shane Curcuru

07/20/2012 4:59pm PDT

So this is kind of like granting committerships, but for general evangelists, right? It’s not access to code, but access to specific brand elements and the ability to show yourself as an official volunteer Mozilla Rep.